Six Episodes or Nine Episodes?

Two of the questions asked of us most often by our
readers are 'Will there be a sequel trilogy?' and
'What will it be about?'.
Between all the staff members,
we can answer almost any Star Wars question you'd throw
our way, but these particular queries seem to stump the even
Jedi Masters in Marin County themselves.

In an interview with the Star Wars Insider (issue 35)
Mr. Lucas addressed the "six films or nine films" question:

"[The whole story has] six episodes....If I ever went
beyond that, it would be something that was made up.
I really don't have any notion other than 'Gee, it
would be interesting to do Luke Skywalker later on.'
It wouldn't be part of the main story, but a sequel
to this thing."

What then of all the rumors we've heard? What about
that character who appears in the prequel trilogy
who's supposed to be frozen in carbonite and return
in the sequel trilogy? What about the rumor that
Luke's new Jedi will quest for a holy grail-like
artifact or that one of Han and Leia's children
will fall to the dark side and wreak havoc as his/her
grandfather did?

They are simply rumors, it would seem.

Okay then, Chris, what of your inside sources telling
the "sequel trilogy is on the run" and "the sequel
trilogy is in its most infantile stages of development"?

That's a tougher question! Could there have been some
miscommunication between us and our sources regarding
the sequel information? The sources were crystal
clear--they said Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Could those
sources have heard wrong from their contacts? It's
a possibility--that sort of thing happens--but it's unlikely
in this case. I forced my most reliable source on this matter to
repeat himself/herself to me a few times...he/she assures me that
the person who told him/her explicitly meant Episodes VII, VIII,
and IX. But what can we make of "on the record" Lucasfilm employees laughing
at and denying anything to do with the sequel trilogy and the completely
different tone of our "off the record" Lucasfilm contacts?

What are you implying, Chris, that there's some big
conspriacy within Lucasfilm regarding the sequels
and that George Lucas was telling the truth from a
certain point of view? No, that's not what I mean. Let me summarize my
thoughts on this matter:
I DON'T KNOW.

I'm rather confused over this whole thing, because
in an interview back in March with Specifiek
Universitair Magazine (vol. 7, no. 3) Rick McCallum,
Mr. Lucas' right hand man, had this to say about the
sequel trilogy:

SUM: Are there already plans for parts 7, 8 and 9?

RM: I'll tell you. There are no plans for them now.
Because this is going to take seven years to
complete, these first three. So if we are both still standing
by then, and we have enjoyed it, and the audience loves it, then
we will think about the next three.

SUM: But Lucas already has an idea of how It's supposed to end?

RM: Oh yeah... When he wrote the original film, he wrote nine
stories, all together. He just picked the Luke Skywalker one,
because he knew he could make only one. But he had to do the
backstory and he had to know where they were going, so he wrote
the basic outline of all nine stories.

So it seems that Mr. McCallum and Mr. Lucas agree that
there are no plans to make the sequels, at that
point, yet their perceptions seem to differ on the development
of the concepts that would appear in Epidoses 7, 8,
and 9. One of McCallum's comments quoted above suggests
that they would start thinking about the sequels if
the prequel trilogy was a success. Since March I
think it has become clearer and clearer to the
Jedi Masters in Marin County that the prequels will
be a success. Could that explain the reports a month
ago from our sources that said the sequel trilogy
is under the most infantile stages of development?
Possibley, but then what of Mr. Lucas's recent comments?
Same answer: I don't know.

It takes approximately seven to nine years for a trilogy
of Star Wars films to be made--that's major commitment
of time and energy. Perhaps George Lucas would rather
spend that time and energy with his loved ones or on
other projects close to his heart.

If you asked me what I think the answer behind all this is,
I'd say George Lucas may have developed more about the
sequel trilogy then he is letting on, but he may be unsure
whether he'd actually want to commit another nine
years of his life to Star Wars. George Lucas has always been considerate
of his fans--his tolerance of web sites like ours is just
one example--perhaps he doesn't want to raise our hopes
on a project he may elect not to make.

I'm just some twenty one year-old with a web site who occassionally
hears from people involved in the production of Episode I, but
here's my advice to fellow Star Wars fans: nevermind the sequels,
focus on the prequels or those three wonderful films that you
can pop into your VCR whenever you want. Right now we have six
incredible hours of that galaxy far, far away with six
more on the way. Let's focus our Star Wars-related energies on those
episodes rather than on questions the Jedi Master himself may not truly know
the answer to.